Tag Archives: Costa Pilavachi

Did some duty-free shopping before leaving airport. Three giggly girls want to know what I have in my shoulder bag and I show them – Bob’s hand drum. Bob says,”You can have it”. She bows and takes it. I buy ginseng powder and the girl wants to sell me the store. She shows me jade earrings and knocks the price down to 1000 won when I tell her it’s all I’ve got. Also purchased a 750 mL bottle of Majuang for 3000 won. Half bottle at the hotel was 5800 won. I see an ad for Majuang wine and it says it’s made from Riesling and Muscat grapes.

12:20 PM – Narita airport and Mr. Koyanagi (Toru’s manager) after eight years – he looks good. On the bus for an hour’s ride into Tokyo. Toru (Takemitsu, composer and friend) is at the hotel.

May 23 – 1:15 PM

Welcome Shibuya Tobu – tiny prefab rooms stacked up floor after floor. It feels good to be in Tokyo again and great to see Toru. We go to the hotel bar and talk for a while and then Toru calls his favorite sushi bar for reservations. Two cabs to Ginza. Incredible sushi. Perfect. I’ve never had sushi that can come close to this. The man behind the bar explains to me how to sharpen the Japanese knives. Finally I’ve got it together. I haven’t been wrong, but not dead on. Huge, brown, fine stone looks like woodblock.

We leave for a bar and it turns out to be the same one Toru took John (Wyre) and I to when we were here with the Toronto Symphony – GASTRO. The Chinese firewater with the lizard in bottle is no longer there, but the vibe comes back. Great bar! Nine stools. When seated, one can lean back and rest one’s back on the wall. Jasper Johns and other artists’ work on the walls. Still sick, with headaches, sore throats and slight fevers, Russ and I order Drambuie. Unasked, the owner serves us side glasses of ice water. I’ve never had ice water chasers with Drambuie – very good. Russ and I have two before the evening ends. Bob drinks Old Parr.

Toru remarks that Japan is too far gone. Two successful. China and North Korea is hopeful. He cannot get a visa for South Korea because of his North Korean friends. He recalls congratulations on his “successful concerts” in America. He says “What do you mean successful?” We comment that Nexus has been avoiding success for 14 years! We discussed banquets – receptions – speeches and ponder the realities.

Toru believes people now are removing themselves from sex. “Too bad”, he says. Biggest problem now is language. All talk is politics -political. He quotes John Cage’s expression “Friends for life”. I remark that it is good to get mad – really mad once in a while and he agrees. It is good in personal relations to fight but not war. “Have you ever hit Eleanor”? he asks. “Never,” I reply and he says he has hit Asaka and he laughs and says, as he throws a fake punch, “To show you how much I love you”. Maki (Toru’s daughter) is starting comparative culture and has developed a Boston accent. (Maki stayed with Seiji Ozawa while she studied in Boston.) Toru says America has become very conservative. Bob objects that it is just a fad. We try and run that down but the close air and booze are interfering.

While we are there, an art critic comes in (a good one according to Toru) and later three artists. Joanne (Tod, artist) tries to make contact but no one is really in the mood. During the cab ride back to the hotel, Bob suggests she should carry her slides with her. Joanne says she doesn’t want to act like a parent showing baby pictures.

The coasters for our drinks say GASTRO for gastronomy or gastronomic. Bob takes the pen and adds: Fidel,interitis and layout artist. Toru likes this very much and leaves the coaster on the bar opposite him before we leave. We get back to the hotel around 11:30 PM and I call for a massage. The desk clerk says in 30 minutes. I wait an hour and call back. He said my name is not registered for massage and massage will be impossible tonight. I’m pissed off but go to sleep and pass out.

Still sick in the head, but 2 cups of Brazilian coffee get me started. Joanne and I hit the streets, but department stores are closed today. Joanne is looking for hard core Japanese pornography. Specifically, bondage. Toru says he does not know where to find this. I suggest she ask the Canadian consul at tonight’s reception. Strictly for art’s sake, of course. (During a later trip to Tokyo I found a book of photographs devoted entirely to bondage and upon returning home, I gave it to Joanne.).

Before going to bed last night, I went to the Dunkin Doughnut shop across the street and got two chocolate covered and a cup of coffee. Terrible doughnuts – coffee okay. McDonald’s is still in business down the street. The people in this area of Tokyo look like parodies of men’s and women’s clothing ads in the New Yorker.

When we arrived at the airport yesterday, we left Bill there to wait for Ruth (Cahn, wife) who was arriving three hours later. Still haven’t seen them. I guess they are out roaming. Something they like to do in every town they hit. They always get the subways together.

Joanne asks Toru if he knows where she could find an arrigata, a Japanese dildo. Toru explained that this is an old word and he did not know where to find one. He said that years ago John Cage met a sailor who brought one back from Japan and it had a tiny bell inside. According to Toru, John said that hearing that bell made him decide to be a composer! Toru was doubtful, but swore that is the story John told him.

12:25 AM

I’m waiting for my male masseuse here after an incredible evening with Toru, Yasanori (percussionist) and his wife Sumire, and Jo Kondo (composer). We go to yakitori house near the hotel. Beautiful food and conversation. It is raining as we gather for reception. We need four cabs and some of us get wet hailing in Shibuya. Victor Feldbrill (conductor) and his wife, Costa Pilavachi (booking tour for NAC Orchestra) and Fred Marrich from Kori Marimbas, various embassy officials – one wife from Youngstown Pennsylvania. A rather mindless evening – lots to drink – I had glasses of Chablis – medium quality. Victor seems very happy in Japan. Toshi Ichiyanagi (composer) is there and it’s nice to see old friends.

The yakitori house dinner is the climax to this entire tour. We all feel very close and many stories are told. We sing old songs. Between Jean (Donelson), who has a remarkable memory for lyrics, and Toru, who is famous for knowing old songs, we had an evening of reminiscence. John sings “April Showers” while some conduct. The last few lines are harmonized. Much sake. Toru was born in China. He flew to Japan when he was eight years old. His parents separated – date unspecified. His mother died recently. He was in the US at the time and had to fly back. We toast friendship forever. Toru’s research into Bryce’s (my son) name is related. (To learn about Toru’s composition Bryce, see on this site, my article titled Toru Takemitsu.)

Yasunori (Yamaguchi, percussionist) and I feel very close. Last time in Tokyo, he was not in such good shape. Now he is father of a boy, Toma (winter horse) and his wife Sumire is a great keyboard player (marimba). Toru says son must be a percussionist. I tell Jo and Yasunori I will give them ginseng. It is very expensive in Japan so will be a good gift. Toru says when you reach 50 years, happiness comes. He repeats that he is free of sex – free of everything. Most of us say we are not free of sex. Very drunk, we close the place and walk back to hotel in the rain. Jo, Yasunori and Sumire have missed the last train and have to take taxis. Jo lives in Kamakura. I get my massage by male masseuse. Very firm, sometimes very painful. My neck was particularly tight and I go to sleep as soon as he leaves.

May 24 – 9:10 AM

Woke up coughing at 6 AM. The phlegm in my throat is like glue. Have two coffees with my Japan Times “All the news without fear or favor” and slide it under Russell’s door. Black drummer with orange shades leads the band on kiddies TV show. He is also one of the hosts. Speaks perfect Japanese. This morning we meet with representatives of Yamaha to learn if they are interested in supporting Nexus with some of their electronics in return for our endorsement. Then we rehearse in theater – other side of Meiji Shrine for our concert tonight. This concert is not part of Music of Today, but was arranged by Toru’s manager. Music of Today starts on the 29th. At 10 AM we had a meeting with Mr. Takeguchi, manager of R&D for Yamaha. We told him what we wanted in electronic percussion instruments. We will visit Yamaha tomorrow morning to play their instruments. Very interesting discussion. He understands problems of attack – sound – duration – overtones and is trying to sell Yamaha on developing this field. He was happy to have spoken with us. We help to confirm his approach to the company.

After meeting, Russ, Dave (Campion, roadie) and I have tempera lunch at the hotel. Dave buys. Now we go rehearse – meet with Kori people and play concert. Nice hall, but strange separation of sound on stage. Each of us feels isolated, but sound quality is good. Toru programmed the concert for us: Drumming, Part 1; Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood and Marimba Phase;Takemitsu’s Rain Tree; Intermission, Cage’s Third Construction; some Rags and the silent film, Teddy at the Throttle. No translator for Teddy. Toru says most Japanese read English but do not speak. Fred Marrich and people from Kori are at concert as well as Victor Feldbrill and his wife, Louis Hamel and his wife, and local drummers. Much applause for Toru’s piece. Long applause after concert. Three bows and encore of Xylophonia.

Fred Marrich was with us all afternoon and evening. Also Toru. Asaka came to the concert and is speaking English very well. After concert, we go to a Spanish restaurant for a beautiul meal. Costa Pilavachi accompanies us.

A friend of Bob’s owns a vineyard and bottles red and white wine under his own label. He gives Bob a bottle of red and Bob leaves it at the hall and notices only when we get out of the cab at the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant asks for our autograph. Toru writes Nexus in Japanese characters and signs his name in a like manner. Then we all sign and John asks me to draw a drum. Finally, Toro writes NEXUS. The card is pretty well filled up by the time we’re finished. We’ve drunk 15 bottles of beer and Toru ordered garlic soup for Russ, Bob and me. He says it will help Shanghai flu. I was soaking wet after the Cage and wondered if I’d make it through the rest of the concert. Actually it felt good afterwards to have sweated that much. Tomorrow we play Cine Vivant, a tiny movie theater, book and art store in Roppongi district. We will play a few rags and Teddy. Just one hour. They have displays of Toru’s scores and photos of him as a child and with Cage and Ichiyanagi in the early 1960s. It should be interesting and a lot of fun.

During the fall of 1968 Toru Takemitsu and I met for the first time on the stage of Massey Hall in Toronto. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa, was recording Green, Asterisms, Requiem for Strings, and Dorian Horizon, all works by Takemitsu. John Wyre was timpanist and I was principal percussionist. These recordings are on Japan RCA Victor Gold Seal CD 90-2-21.

Green needed 4 or 5 small bells of different pitches and I found old telephone bells and suspended them. During a break in the rehearsal, Toru approached John and me and we began to speak. I do not remember what we talked about. We liked each other and he visited our homes. I gave him the little bells as a going away present.

In the spring of 1969 we met again in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo during the Toronto Symphony tour. In Kyoto, Toru and Asaka met my wife and me at our Ryokan, took us to lunch, to temples and a traditional cemetery on a hill overlooking the city. In Tokyo, Toru and Asaka took us dining and shopping.

Toru asked me, John and the Lyric Arts Trio to perform in the Space Theatre of Expo 70 in Osaka. I went to Toru’s apartment and it was there I heard his hilarious version of I Left My Heart in San Francisco for tape and for the first time saw his colored paper book Munari by Munari (1967-72). Toru explained the cut out designs and how they were to be played. This was all rather heady stuff for a symphony musician, but it would not be long before events brought the revelations to fruition. After our performances, Toru invited me, John and Yuji Takahashi to stay with him and his wife Asaka for a few days in their summer home in Karuizawa.

Yuji Takahashi, Space Theater, 1970

On the trip north from Tokyo our train stopped briefly at a station and Yuji suddenly motioned for us to follow him. We left our car and hurried to a vendor where we bought hot soba noodles and quickly returned to our train. When we were all on board, Yuji explained our haste, “These are the best noodles between Tokyo and Karuizawa”.

Toru wanted to show us a waterfall. An automobile arrived at his home and we drove into the mountains. Stopping along the road, we followed a small stream through a forest. It was a short walk to a cliff about 20 feet high. There was a lovely shallow pool of water at its base. Two feet above the pool was a tiny crack running horizontally for about forty feet across the face of the cliff. From out of that crack came a thin sliver of water. The flow was so gentle, the water never left the rock face as it made its way down to the pool. There was no sound. This was Toru’s “Waterfall”.
(“Shiraito-no-taki” water fall down like a “shiro[shira]”=white “ito”=thread”. Taki means fall. Trranslation by Yuji Takahashi sent to me via e-mail from Mitsuo Ono.)

The year was 1971 when Bill Cahn, John Wyre and I drove to Chicago to hear Stomu Yamashta play the North American premier of Cassiopeia (1971) at Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Seiji Ozawa. The day after this performance Toru joined us for the trip back to Toronto with a stop in Ann Arbor to meet the senior musicologist William P. Malm whose analysis of traditional Japanese music were in opposition to those of Takemitsu. Malm believed the traditional music of Japan such as Gagaku was governed by logical formulas. After a very pleasant visit with Malm and his wife, we resumed our journey. A brief time passed and Toru quietly said. “He’s wrong.”

Soon after our arrival Toru visited my home north of Toronto where he met our son Bryce. Their greeting was formal and quiet. Later Toru asked me, “What is the meaning of Bryce?” I told him my wife Eleanor and I had chosen the name simply because we liked it.

Early next morning I picked Toru up for a rehearsal. When he got in the car he said, “Bryce means the centre of feeling. I will write a piece for him.” How he came to this information in such a short time, I’ll never know and I was too surprised to ask. During the next two days Toru gave presentations of Munari by Munari for composition classes in the Faculty of Music University of Toronto and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Bill, John and I accompanied him and played what was essentially an improvisation presented as Munari by Munari. I came to understand the work was at that time not finished.

Bryce and Takemitsu playing. John Wyre on the left, 1971. Photo, R.E.

Four years later Bryce was completed (1976) and premiered in Toronto on 20 March by myself playing marimba, John Wyre bells and gongs, Bob Aitken flute, Judy Loman and Erica Goodman, harps. The title page reads, “Bryce, for flute, two harps, marimba and percussion. This work was commissioned by the Canada Council and dedicated to Bryce Engelman.” A couple of years later, after playing Bryce In Germany, I met Heinz Holliger who had heard the performance. He said, “Now I understand.” After a pause Holliger continued, “I think Bryce is Toru’s best work.”

Toru invited Nexus to tour Japan in June-July of 1976. I will always remember this first tour with fondness because Toru’s manager had arranged for venues, advertising, our hotels and transportation – luxuries Nexus rarely savored. However most memorably, Toru traveled with us, sharing “the road.” He acted as our Master of Ceremonies, introducing us to our audiences.

Toru on the Nexus tour bus, 1976. Photo, R.E.

Also in 1976 Jo Kondo wrote Under the Umbrella, commissioned by Toru for Nexus and written for 25 cowbells. Nexus premiered this in Toronto 8 November, 1976. We made a superb recording of this work for Paul Zukofsky, available on CP2, 123.

Toru felt Toronto was a special city. He enjoyed the musicians, the way they played and their attitudes. During the years before his death, he made many visits to Toronto. In 1982 he introduced Jo Kondo to New Music Concerts audiences. I heard again Jo’s predilection for cowbells. This time the work was Knots (1977) scored for two guitars, electric piano and cowbells. Jo recently said that Toru had encouraged him and had been “a big help to my career”.

Takemitsu seated behind Jo Kondo in Toronto, 1982

Toru assembled a group of Japan’s most dedicated and proficient players of new music for his ensemble Sound Space Arc. (1.) In July 1988 he brought this group to New York City for a series of concerts sponsored by the Japan Society. The concerts consisted almost exclusively of Japanese music chosen chronologically by Takemitsu as a history of Japanese music. My wife and I booked tickets early as we not only knew Toru, but many of the players such as pianist Aki Takahashi, flutist Hiroshi Koizumi, Ayako Shinozaki, harp (with whom I had played Bryce in Japan), and my friend, the percussionist Yasunori Yamaguchi. Sound Space Ark gave five concerts in as many evenings. The longest and most fullsome applause followed Yamaguchi’s performance of his solo work Time of Celestial. Yamaguchi premiered most of Toru’s works with percussion. He is a very special musician and can make time stand still.

Just days before my wife and I left Toronto for New York, Nexus learned that in honor of its 100 anniversary, Carnegie Hall had commissioned Toru to write a work for Seiji Ozawa, The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Nexus. The work, premiered 19 October 1990, was titled From me flows what you call Time (capitalizations correct). The man behind the scenes whose idea it was to bring everyone together was Costa Pilavachi. At the time Costa was Ozawa’s liason with the management of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Costa would go on to become head of Decca and EMI Classics and later senior vice president, classical artists and repertoire for Universal Music Group International. His name is not on the score, nor is it in any reviews I’ve read, but Costa’s foresight and efforts would prove to be responsible for the creation of the most profitable piece of music in the history of Nexus and perhaps, among the most influential works for percussion and orchestra.

In my opinion, the best performance of Bryce was given twenty years after its premier on 25 September 1996. The original players were assembled in honor of Takemitsu being posthumously awarded the Glenn Gould Prize. Toru had died the previous February. His wife Asaka and daughter Maki had flown in for the presentation. Toru had many friends in Toronto and the theater was full. The performance was spellbinding. Unfortunately, the recording, though captured beautifully by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, will probably never be released to the public.

I last spoke with Toru while he was hospitalized. Bob Aitken called him from Toronto around Christmas time 1995 and we talked casually about every day things because we soon expected to hear of his release from the hospital. Nexus learned of Toru’s death the morning of its 25th anniversary concert in Kilbourn Hall, the Eastman School of Music. We were shocked by the news. Toru’s immune system had been weakened by his cancer treatments. His doctors had not prepared for this exigency and though free of cancer, Toru developed pneumonia and died. Seiji said Toru’s death was a “scandal”.

In December 2010 my wife and I flew to New York City for the Japan Festival organized by Seiji Ozawa. In Carnegie Hall Seiji conducted the Saito Kinen Orchestra in performances of the Benjamin Britten War Requiem and the Berlioz Symphony Fantastique. Maki had organized another concert in Zankel Hall with Japanese jazz musicians who improvised on themes by Toru. The accordionist had played on the Seri recording Toru Takemitsu pop songs. (Denon, COCY-78624

I sat with Maki, Asaka, the wife of the accordionist and the poet Shuntara Tanikawa who had provided Toru inspiration for many of his songs. It was a good concert, as were they all, but Maki was now a grown woman, Asaka and I were growing old, and Toru who had always been our nexus, was missing.

Toronto,1990-Takemitsu next to a picture of himself in traditional Japanese dress taken in Tokyo,1969. Photo, R.E.

These vignettes,, reminiscences were written at the request of Mitsuko Ono who is writing a book about Takemitsu.

NOTE:

(1.) Ryan Scott, Artistic Director of Continuum Contemporary Music, interviewed composer Jo Kondo in the Fall of 2014. During that interview the origin of Soun Space Ark was broached. Ryan may have been referring to this article when he mentioned that “Takemitsu had assembled a group”, ” for his ensemble Sound Space Arc”. Kondo strongly objected to this portrayal by declaring Sound Space Arc to be an independent group, not Takemitsu’s group. They “got together spontaneously” and made recordings of concerts and commissioned composers. “Toru was not behind it”.

Indeed, Kondo is correct. Soun Space Ark was founded in 1972 by pianist Aki Takahashi, flutist Hiroshi Koizumi, Ayako Shinozaki, harp, and percussionist Yasunori Yamaguchi. Takemitsu invited them to New York for the first New York International Festival of the Arts in 1988. It was at that time my information unwittingly became skewed. I apologize to everyone who may have been negatively affected by my mistake.